Multitasking is our modern-day nature and pride. Technology is continuously coming up with ways to make it easier to do anything and everything with such ease, and subsequently at the same time. We can finally conquer all we desire each waking day because we have immediate access to the world at our fingertips (and now even our eyeballs: google glass hitting Diane Von Furstenberg’s runway)! False! The readiness to multitask is a curse. To multitask by definition reads, “Often used of humans in the same meaning it has for computers, to describe a person doing several things at once.” Is this really something we want to do? Do we want to operate the way a computer does? Those machines burn out for crying out loud, and now, operating like them, so do we! When we divide our attention we are not doing one thing well. I find my ability to finish a blog post, get to class early to go over those moves I’ve been dying to perfect, choreograph that piece I’ve dreamt about starting, and pick up choreography swiftly all gets sucked away, minute by minute, to my quietly nagging iPhone that never lurks too far from my side. And worse yet if it isn’t the technology itself, it’s my brain that now almost seems hard-wired to operate on over-drive mode, my mind constantly bobbing from thought to thought comparable to the Internet I have grown to adopt so openly. My attention span and patience to sit with one idea sucks. And why is “turning off” so damn hard? When we dance, we strive for efficiency of movement – the only way we developpé our leg to our ear is if we only use the muscles we need and let the ones that prohibit our wishful concussion a back seat. What is our potential for efficiency if we can streamline our thoughts, and release our “mental” hip flexors? …in the studio and in our lives?

Let’s start in the studio before we take on our lives, shall we?

How many times are we at barré and doing the combination with the teacher, except we don’t know what they are going to do? We move our body and play mind-reader with someone we don’t know. How effective is that? Or worse yet, we move our hands when the exercise is ultimately done with our feet, while we also predict what this stranger will do. Or my personal favorite – how often do we stretch our hamstrings, think about the rotation of our inner thighs from the exercise prior, concern ourselves about our weak something-or-other, our PT appointment that we have to run to directly after class, and contemplate our life’s purpose, all while our favorite teacher just gave a tendue combination? Then we arrive in first position with our left hand on the barré and we think, “How the hell does this start?” Maybe if we do one thing, say, listen and absorb the combination only, we will actually get the combo. Then when we have a second later we can devote all our attention to stretching our hamstrings, rather than just hanging over a dead-leg thrown on a barré. It is impossible to stretch effectively while simultaneously learning movement. It is impossible to get to PT while we do tendues. It is stupid to concern ourselves with our next career move while we attempt mastery of our degaggé. Our productiveness in all of these areas significantly improves if we absorb one piece of information at a time.

We are looking at teacher without seeing teacher.

Looking is not enough. Seeing, focusing our undivided attention, brings our level of productivity up another notch. We are capable of digesting a combination after seeing it demonstrated the first time. Why not? It’s just a series of tendues and pliés in a more or less predictable pattern that we’ve practiced for the majority of our lives. The more we see, the quicker we absorb the combination. Then when the teacher does it the second time (for those poor souls who were doing their to-do lists in their head the first time), we add a layer of artistry that takes our dancing to the next level.

Now when I play teacher, I do a similar version of this mental multitasking. I can be teaching and simultaneously distracted with multiple thoughts. “Is that how that next combination starts? Is this musical selection working? Are people comprehending what I intended?” This all takes me away from seeing each one of my dancers more clearly; understanding how they work, what motivates them, what challenges them and why, what their tendencies are, and where their bodies hold tension. Seeing my students allows me to help more on an individualized level. One thought at a time brings forth a more articulate, perceptive, and productive teaching methodology.

And going a step further, when we learn choreography, how much do we see? How much can we focus our attention on what is solely important at that moment to the person leading the room? I can distract myself with thoughts of sequencing when I should take a step back and see that the choreographer isn’t stressing the exactness of steps at all. Their vagueness shouldn’t be a source of frustration but something I can see, and then adopt in my learning style and subsequently my execution, to better suit the purpose before they give that correction. And vice versa, as a choreographer, can we see how dancers learn the movement and guide them to see the integral essence being created? If we distract our mind, there is no way we can possibly juggle this level of thought. If we can’t get to this level of thought, we are missing out on a beautiful layer of depth and therefore, productivity and creativity.

Now if we aren’t already dying to get to this level of efficiency and attention in the studio, we should at least crave it to streamline our lives. Just think about how much time we can earn when we fully devote ourselves to work effectively on one thing at a time. Limit distractions, delineate time to focus solely on one idea to see if it works before bouncing to the next one and not getting one solid thing accomplished. We don’t need our iPhones, Gmail, or Facebook to write that term paper. We can’t research new dance companies holding auditions and talk to our loved ones on the phone. Odds are we yes them absent-mindedly or end up buying shoes off of Gilt instead. It is virtually impossible to walk and text successfully. I typically look like a drunkard. It is more time efficient to stop, send a text, and then continue on walking. Instead I insist on spilling my tea on myself, take about 5 blocks to text 3 words, and nearly break a toe while navigating uneven New York pavement. (Hell, we need those toes!) I can sit in front of the T.V. and eat dinner and then finish everything on my plate, and feel completely unsatisfied; I didn’t taste my meal. How many times do I have to re-read the same paragraph over and over again because I didn’t digest a lick of it? I am too busy jumping thoughts, or paying attention to the cutie who just got on the bus. How many times do I attempt to go to bed, but then keep checking my iPhone when the light goes off just to wake in the morning craving an extra half hour of sleep? And for crying out loud, I don’t need my brain when I do the dishes. Let’s turn off when we can so we can be refreshed when we do need our minds to work for us.

Let’s use technology when we need it and designate time for it, rather than have it cloud our lives at large. We don’t need to respond to that text immediately. Set new standards. Spend time well, doing one thing at a time. If we do one thing only, we feel more satisfaction from completing it whole-heartedly. In turn, we gain some precious time to conquer those dreams that lie in our journals untouched. We gain a deeper level of artistry. We gain beautiful, unadulterated moments with our friends and lovers, granting them the full attention we all deserve. Check out less and stay tuned-in more. Look less and see more. Kill mental and physical multitasking once and for all!!!

I attempted to check my iPhone 18 times while I wrote this.

I have 33 pending drafts of articles saved to my computer that I started to write but never finished.

Back in 2009, I received the opportunity to teach a residency at Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School on behalf of Buglisi Dance Theatre and their outreach affiliation with the NYC public schools. I restaged excerpts of Jacqueline Buglisi’s Caravaggio Meets Hopper. Honestly, teaching these students was such a treat for me and I am eager to teach more residencies both on behalf of BDT or Parsons (in due time, hopefully!) and with my own choreography. I was impressed with how well they executed the work when they applied themselves openly to the movement. Congrats dancers!

The engaging challenge for me is to actively reach out and engage each and every student to have them put forth their best effort. One of the most eye opening experiences was to see one young woman in particular have so many “can nots” and personal limitations imposed upon herself, when she truthfully had some of the most potential and mental swiftness of the bunch. She wouldn’t dare push herself, but when myself and dance instructor for the program, Vivian Ullman (bless that woman and the tremendous work which she does!), milked it out of her she was nothing short of remarkable. Gets me thinking so much about how our upbringing and background has such an impact on our perception of ourselves and the possibilities we have available to us. I believe I can thank Malcolm Gladwell for this – reading Outliers now! Perhaps a post about the patterns instilled in most “successful” (gosh whatever that means) dancers to come! So without further ado and any more distracting side-bar remarks, here is intimate video footage of the dancers working, from the studio through to dress rehearsal. Enjoy!